86 ranger electrical issues

[crispyominus]

I have a 1986 ranger 2wd ext cab witha 2.9l v6. has been running fine lately but i drove home from work today and a few hours after i was going to leave but my truck would not start. battery is good, but when checking it i noticed the black/orange wire going to my solenoid on the passenger fender was burnt up and broke in half ( knew i smelled something when i got in my truck). the wire attaches to the same post of the solenoid as my positive battery cable. it then goes all the way around the motor and through the firewall to the fusebox. having a little bit of electrical knowledge i cut the wire right before the fusebox and checked it for a short to ground. found the wire was shorted to ground on the side connected to fuse box and not shorted on the side that goes to the solenoid. my question is since none of my fuses in the fusebox blew does it mean my fusebox is bad or are there wires spliced off of this one going to other things that arent fused? thnx in advance for any help guys!!

 

[strvger]

was there a fusible link in that black/orange wire? if so, i'd be looking for what caused it to go out.

 

[crispyominus]

yeah it had a fusible link thats what burnt up on the black/orange wire. i know what made it burn up. the black and orange wire has a short to ground. my question was if the fuses in the fuse box did not blow does that mean my fusebox is shorted? or are there other wires that come off that black/orange wire in the fuse box and go to something else? I also disconnected my ignition switch and rechecked. still shorted to ground. i also disconnected my alternator thinking maybe the armature had shorted but with it unplugged the black/orange wire is still shorted to ground.

plz help this is my only mode of transportation

 

[strvger]

the fusible link blowing should have protected everything else beyond it. so, since you know that it was shorted out, if you find and repair that short, insert a new fusible link, then everything else should be good. i don't think anything from the fuse box side caused the fusible link to burn up or some or all of your fuses would have fried first.

 

[crispyominus]

ok so i was being stupid and found that the orange and black wire was grounded cuz i had the door open and the dome lamps were wanting to come on. closed the door and hooked everything back up still had ground on orange wire, unplugged my alternator and taadaa!! short went away. so i guess my armature is shorted in my alternator. got one on order so hopefully that will do the trick!!
i will post back just to confirm this and close this topic out. thnx for your replies was nice actually getting some help out of a forum for once.

 

[strvger]

ok. sounds like you've got it taken care of. good luck!

 

[crispyominus]

yeah replaced my alternator and that seemed to do the trick. always kick myself for getting too far ahead and being stupid. easy to do with electrical i know. used to work for a ford dealer as a tech doin electrical but been out of it a few years so was a little rusty. but all is well now. hopefully my 86 will hang on a bit longer thanx again for help man

 

[strvger]

glad it's fixed. little more expensive than a fusible link or a fuse, but at least it's done.